Hey gixx, thanks so much. I haven't made time yet to watch the whole hour of it, but I have browsed around in it some and it is really nice. The intro piece is beautiful and then what a strong contrast when it switches from the cherry trees and beautiful natural setting there to Tokyo train station and city scapes, crowded with people, machines, buildings and nothing green anywhere.

I was really struck, the narrator at that point says "Living in the city, I was not conscious of living on the earth and I never talked to anyone in the city about the earth." That does seem to be part of our problem! That's part of why I think gardening is so important, so that lots of city dwellers can get back in touch with the earth, natural cycles, weather and why it is important, and so on. Even if you just have a little balcony garden, it will make you pay more attention.

Thanks, Gixx! I watched the video last night. He was a remarkable man.Now I want to make more seed/clay balls.... We're starting to get some rain around here, so it'll be time to start tossing them soon.

KORN: Some people have noticed a spiritual, almost mystical quality to your theory of farming. Do you feel you're receiving insight and guidance from a divine source?

FUKUOKA: Although natural farmingÃ¢â‚¬â€since it can teach people to cultivate a deep understanding of natureÃ¢â‚¬â€may lead to spiritual insight, it's not strictly a spiritual practice. Natural farming is just farming, nothing more. You don't have to be a spiritually oriented person to practice my methods. Anyone who can approach these concepts with a clear, open mind will be starting off well. In fact, the person who can most easily take up natural agriculture is the one who doesn't have any of the common adult obstructing blocks of desire, philosophy, or religion . . . the person who has the mind and heart of a child. One must simply know nature . . . real nature, not the one we think we know!

I made fall greens mixed with fall daikon and German Giant radish seedballs and buckwheat and azuki warm weather covercrop seedballs. (I used up my clover seeds or I would've used those. Do you collect white clover seeds? I never think to do that and end up buying them I think if I hurry, I can still harvest some yellow sweet clover and red clover seeds)

I'm supposed to be able to sow carrots until end of August, so I think I'll make those next. I always have trouble with carrot rust flies, so I had an idea to try mixing in some DE to the clay -- not sure if the clay would negate the DE or if once dry and the clay ball deteriorates after germination, etc. DE will be freed up and be effective. Do you think grinding mosquito dunks (Bt for mosquitoes, gnats, and certain species of flies) to powder and adding it also might help?

Interesting ideas, applestar. Don't know about the DE. I usually have to reapply it after rains; it seems to just disappear. The mosquito dunks are made to be used in water, I think the Bt is in some kind of spore form until moistened, so moistening the clay and/or watering it in seems like it would activate it. The question would be whether the variety of Bt in the dunks would be effective against your flies. There are different varieties of Bt that are specific to different insects.

However, it doesn't seem like either of those things would be very harmful, so at most you've lost whatever the small amount used cost you and possibly you saved your carrot crop.